Turkey points a finger to the UK

[english at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl]

From: Press Agency Ozgurluk <ozgurluk at xs4all.nl>

This is probably in all Turkish papers...

                                      
                Journalist calls on UK to respect human rights
                                       
     _________________________________________________________________
  
 By Orya Sultan Halisdemir / Turkish Daily News
 
London- Despite giving special emphasis to human rights in defining
the UK's relations with other countries, the Labour government
recently came under attack for failing to apply the same criteria at
home. There were accusations the current government was continuing the
former Conservative government's silence on trade in torture weapons
and keeping hundreds of asylum seekers in prison for months.

Martyn Gregory wrote in the weekly "New Statesman" that the Labour
government should break the conspiracy of silence and name the company
involved in the trade of electro-shock weapons to countries such as
China, Turkey, Iran and Indonesia during the Conservative period.
Gregory was the maker of the documentary called "The Torture Trail,"
broadcast in 1995, revealing Britain's role in the torture weapons
trade. The documentary secretly filmed the personalities involved in
the trade and the name of British Aerospace (BAe) emerged as the
company involved. However, there were denials that the company to
which the trans-shipment licence was granted was BAe. Gregory, after
welcoming last week's decision to hand down a 5,000 pound fine to
Frank Stott, one of the accused who later pleaded guilty to possessing
electro-shock weapons, called on the Labour government to name the
company involved in "this blatant abuse of human rights," as Gregory
put it.

He attacked the new policy outlined by Foreign Secretary Robin Cook
which will make the trans-shipment of electro-shock weapons illegal,
as part of its emphasis on developing an ethical foreign policy. "The
relevant department in this context is the Department of Trade and
Industry (DTI) rather than the Foreign Office and it has so far played
a perfidious role in this drama," Gregory stated in his article. He
said that British companies could also be involved in a 'brokering' or
'factoring' process by which companies can profit from sales without
the weapons coming anywhere near Britain. He said that to eliminate
this the DTI had to take action.

"Under BAe's offer to us, the electro-shock weapons would have been
factored from the United States and Germany and directed to Lebanon.
To ban trans-shipment would have no effect on this process," Gregory
said, referring to promises made to him by BAe's authorities in his
secretly filmed program where he had posed as a British agent wanting
to buy weapons for the Lebanese police force. He called on the Labour
government not to hide behind the "commercial confidentiality" excuse
and reveal to which company the DTI had granted a licence to tranship
the torture weapons.

Meanwhile, Jonathan Steele at The Guardian, a daily known for its
support of the Labour government, wrote that human rights policies
were easily hindered by selectivity issues. "You scold the small
offenders and ignore the big ones. You ban new weapons but turn a
blind eye to existing contracts, as was the case in the sale of Hawks
to Indonesia," he criticized. Steele then went on to say that,
according to a study by Amnesty International (AI), Britain detained
foreigners more often than any other European country. He touched upon
the hundreds of asylum seekers imprisoned in the UK and said that the
UK was the only country which locks asylum seekers up without judicial
review or any prescribed time limit. Around 750 people are currently
locked up in four detention centers in the UK. The human rights
organizations criticize this move as 'failing to satisfy those who
flee out of a fear of prosecution.'

While these critics focused on contradictory elements in Labour's
ethical foreign policy, David Mepham, the British foreign policy
program coordinator for Safeworld wrote that Britain should reorient
its assistance to developing countries if it wishes to improve human
rights at the international level. He wrote in his article in the New
Statesmen that Britain should base its development assistance strategy
on methods of tackling social exclusion, which he calls the reason for
conflicts in poorer countries. He said more resources should be
provided for programs in the areas of law, administration and human
rights of those developing countries where human rights are weak.

-- 
Press-Agency Ozgurluk: http://www.ozgurluk.org
The struggle for human right, freedom, justice and democracy in Turkey
and Kurdistan
Mailinglistinfo: petidomo at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl